JPH10278294A - Supplementary ink tank in ink jet system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To supplement ink in an ink cartridge with no assistance by providing an elastic bag body internally filled with a supplementary ink being delivered to an ink channel. SOLUTION: A supplementary ink delivered from a bag body 12 by its own expanding/contracting force is supplied from an ink channel 4 through an ink quantity regulation valve 9 and a deaeration trap 7 to an ink cartridge 3. When the ink in the bag body 12 runs out, a supplementary ink tank 10 is taken out from a joint 6 and replaced by a new ink tank. Consequently, supplementary ink can be supplied from the ink channel 4 to the ink cartridge 3 through an inexpensive structure without requiring any other driving energy by filling the bag body 12 with a supplementary ink and coupling the bag body 12 with the ink channel 4. Since the mounting position, as well as the pressure, of the bag body 12 is not required to be set at a high level, degree of freedom can be increased in design while making compact the ink tank.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a replenishment ink tank for an ink jet printer, plotter, etc. (hereinafter referred to as "printing apparatus") in an ink jet system. The present invention relates to a refill ink tank in an ink jet system used for a so-called wide format printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In most cases, an ink jet system, which is one of the printing systems of a printing apparatus, uses a cartridge attached to an ink supply section of the printing apparatus. This cartridge is very expensive and inefficient, considering the amount of ink used in the printing apparatus. In particular, printers used for printing out graphics and the like, especially wide format printers, consume a large amount of ink and may run out of ink during printing. Such loss also takes into account the processing time and cost of the printing device,
This is a huge negative and a solution is desired.

In recent years, therefore, a technique has been developed in which an ink cartridge is mounted on a printing apparatus, and a refill ink tank of an ink jet system is connected to the mounted ink cartridge to prevent the ink cartridge from running out of ink. For example, JP-A-2-201
In the ink supply system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 3 (KOKAI), an ink flow path is connected to an ink cartridge,
A configuration is disclosed in which a remote ink supply source as a refill ink tank in an ink jet system is provided in the ink flow path, and replenishment ink is supplied from the remote ink supply source.

Here, in order to supply the refill ink from the remote ink supply source to the ink cartridge, for example, the inside of the ink cartridge is maintained at a negative pressure, and the setting is made such that the refill ink flows from the remote ink supply source into the ink cartridge. It is necessary to keep it. Therefore, in the system disclosed in the above publication, as described in the second line to the twelfth line in the lower left column of the second page, the negative head inside the ink cartridge is increased by the driving energy of the printing apparatus, The replenishment ink has been supplied by the capillary phenomenon in the ink flow path caused by this.

[0005]

As described above, as a method of supplying the refill ink, conventionally, drive energy given from the outside of the remote ink supply source was exclusively required. In some cases, it is not possible to carry out optimal ink replenishment depending on the driving energy.

For example, in the above-mentioned prior art, since the driving energy of the printing apparatus is used, it is impossible to maintain a negative pressure in the ink cartridge while the printing apparatus is stopped. No ink is replenished. For this reason, when the printing apparatus has been stopped for a long time, it is not possible to avoid a problem that the ink is not replenished for a while after the operation of the printing apparatus is started, and the ink may run out.

A method of providing a driving device such as a pump separately from the printing device to pressurize the remote ink supply source is also conceivable. In such a case, it is necessary to avoid the cost increase by providing the driving device. Can not be done. Alternatively, it is conceivable to arrange the remote ink supply source at a higher position than the ink cartridge and supply the refill ink by its own weight. It is not possible to solve the problem that the entire device is enlarged by vertically extending the ink flow path.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a low-cost ink-jet replenishing ink tank which has a high degree of freedom in design and can replenish ink in an ink cartridge by itself. And

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is connected to an ink-jet type ink cartridge mounted on a printing apparatus so that replenishment ink can be supplied through an ink flow path. A refill ink tank for an ink jet system, comprising a resilient bag capable of discharging the refill ink filled therein to the ink flow path.

[0010] In the invention including this specific matter, since the bag filled with the refill ink has elasticity capable of discharging the refill ink into the ink flow path, the bag is filled with the refill ink and connected to the ink flow path. This makes it possible to supply the refill ink to the ink cartridge from the ink flow path by itself without requiring other driving energy. Also,
In a preferred embodiment of the replenishment ink tank in the above-mentioned ink jet system, a joint portion for detachably connecting a discharge portion of the bag and an upstream end of the ink flow path is provided.

[0011] In the invention including this specific matter, since the refill ink tank in the ink jet system can be attached to and detached from the ink flow path by the joint portion, maintenance of the refill ink tank in the ink jet system becomes easy. The elasticity of the bag is preferably determined by the material of the bag (for example, the bag is formed of an elastic body such as rubber). However, it is also possible to employ a bag made of metal, synthetic resin, or the like having a plate-shaped spring inside to provide elasticity.

[0012]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an ink supply system employing a refill ink tank according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a printing apparatus. Specifically, it is an inkjet wide format printer that can perform full color printing using four color inks of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (B). In the printing apparatus 1, ink receiving ports 2 corresponding to the respective colors are formed for performing color printing. In each ink receiving port 2, an ink cartridge 3 is mounted so as to be able to supply ink of a corresponding color.

Similarly to this type of ink supply system, the downstream end of the ink flow path 4 is connected to each ink cartridge via a joint 5, and the upstream end of the ink flow path 4 is connected to the joint section. 6 and communicate with the replenishment ink tank 10. The refill ink tank 10 replenishes the refill ink of the color of the corresponding ink cartridge 3. In the illustrated example, a deaeration trap 7 is connected in the middle of the ink flow path 4 so as to release the air in the replenishment ink. The ink amount sensor 8 is connected.
The ink amount adjusting valve 9 arranged on the upstream side is controlled so as to be controllable. Thus, the amount of ink replenishment from the replenishment ink tank 10 described below can be adjusted.

Next, the refill ink tank 10 will be described in detail. Replenishment ink tank 10 in the illustrated embodiment
Has an outer container 11 made of resin and a bag body 12 housed inside the outer container 11. The outer container 11 includes a container body 11A, a squeezed portion 11B formed at an upper end of the container body 11A, and a mouth 11C formed at an upper end of the squeezed portion 11B. The attachment portion 6A of the joint portion 6 is screwed to a screw (not shown) screwed around the outer periphery of the bag, so that the mouth of the bag body 12 housed therein is maintained in a liquid-tight state. Is connected to the upstream end of the ink flow path 4.

The bag 12 is a bag having elasticity enough to push the refill ink filled therein into the ink flow path 4. More specifically, it is a product having rubber elasticity, and is formed in a bag shape in which a space is not formed at all in a free state (a state shown by a solid line in the figure). In order to embody such a configuration, for example, a core material is provided inside the bag body 12, and in the free state, the outer peripheral surface of the core material and the inner peripheral surface of the bag body 12 are in close contact with each other, so that It is preferable to keep a closed state without forming a sphere. By filling the inside of the bag body 12 (between the inner peripheral surface of the bag body 12 and the outer peripheral surface of the core material, if there is a core material, the same applies hereinafter), the supplemental ink is filled, and the imaginary line in FIG. As shown in FIG.
The replenishment ink is discharged from the ejection portion 12A of the bag
From the ink flow path 4.

As an example of embodying the discharge section 12A, a pipe 13 is provided at the mouth of a bag 12 made of a rubber product.
The opening (i.e., the discharge portion 12A) of the pipe 13 may be connected to the upstream end of the ink flow path 4 with the joint portion 6 maintaining the liquid tightness. When embodying this embodiment, it is preferable to fill the inside of the bag body 12 contained in the outer container 11 with the replenishing ink, seal the discharge port by a well-known sealing method, and ship the product. As a result, the refill ink tank 10 itself can be sold as a single item as a supply product.

In the above configuration, the replenishment ink discharged from the bag body 12 by the self-contracting force of the bag body 12 passes through the ink flow path 4 through the ink amount adjusting valve 9 and the air removal trap 7.
Is supplied to the ink cartridge 3 through As a result,
The area from the ink cartridge 3 to the air removal trap 7 is always filled with ink. When the ink is filled to an appropriate amount in the air removal trap 7, the air removal trap 7
The ink amount adjustment valve 9 is closed by the ink amount sensor 8 provided in the printer to prevent the ink from being sent excessively and causing the ink leakage. On the other hand, when the amount of ink becomes smaller than the predetermined amount, the ink amount adjusting valve 9 is opened again to increase the amount of ink so that the ink does not run out.

When the ink inside the bag 12 is exhausted, the replenishment ink tank 10 is removed from the joint 6 and replaced with a new one, so that the printing apparatus 1 can continuously run out of the ink in the ink cartridge 3 without running out. Can be printed. As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, the bag 12 having elasticity is configured to be able to discharge the ink inside by the elasticity. By connecting to the ink cartridge 4, it is possible to supply the refill ink from the ink flow path 4 to the ink cartridge 3 with a very inexpensive configuration without requiring any other driving energy.
In addition, since it is not necessary to set the mounting place at a particularly high place only by setting the pressure of the bag body 12, the degree of freedom of design is high and the size can be reduced.

In particular, since the joint portion 6 is provided for detachably joining the discharge portion of the bag body 12 and the upstream end of the ink flow path 4, the replenishment ink tank 10 itself is connected to the ink flow path by the joint portion 6. As a result, the maintenance of the refill ink tank 10 is facilitated. Therefore, there is an advantage that workability is improved.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to supply the replenishment ink from the ink flow path to the ink cartridge with no need for any other driving energy, and to design the ink cartridge. This has a remarkable effect that an inexpensive product having a high degree of freedom and capable of replenishing the ink in the ink cartridge by itself can be provided.

In particular, when a joint portion is provided, the refill ink tank itself in the ink jet system can be attached to and detached from the ink flow channel by the joint portion, so that maintenance of the refill ink tank in the ink jet system is easy. As a result, there is an advantage that workability is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an ink supply system employing a refill ink tank according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 3 ink cartridge 4 ink flow path 6 joint section 10 refill ink tank 11 outer container 12 bag body 12A discharge section

Claims (2)

[Claims] A refill ink tank of an ink jet system connected to an ink cartridge of an ink jet system mounted on a printing apparatus so as to be able to supply refill ink through an ink flow path. A replenishing ink tank in an ink jet system, comprising a bag having elasticity capable of being discharged into the ink flow path. 2. A refill ink tank according to claim 1, further comprising a joint for detachably connecting a discharge portion of the bag and an upstream end of the ink flow path. tank.